Ashes to Ashes
by The Fall of Reason
Summary: Shortly after Naruto's birthday, Konoha Village is on high alert. Something important was stolen and now the village prepares for what will most likly be a devastating attack...(rated for later language and violence)
1. Flowers

AJ: Yay! My first Naruto fic! Huzzah to Naruto! Anyways to everyone's favourite part of a fic! THE DISCLAIMER!!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! *Cough * right, I don't own naruto or nuttin. . . so ya. . . oh! Pairings right I'm gonna put in some KakaIru, NejiSaku, NaruHina and now to the story! And WARNING slight spoilers, very slight, just a momentary, vague, mention of events in 189 and up and righto I use a couple Jap words so just in case you people don't know here they are with there meanings  
  
Ano- um  
  
Nani- What  
  
******  
  
Chapter 1  
  
The atmosphere around the hidden leaf village was always rather depressing around the tenth of October. Most people's minds turned to thoughts of loved ones they had lost on the horrible day the fox demon attacked and was sealed away.  
  
Even the container of the demon wasn't entirely his usual, overly hyper self. Though it was his birthday, he received twice as many mean and evil glares from the people of the village, the ones who saw him only as the fox.  
  
Naruto kicked a rock back and forth, thinking more about how to beat Sasuke on the day's mission then about his birthday, which (since that day was the ninth) was the next day.  
  
Naruto waited with Sasuke and Sakura for their faithfully late teacher. It was now three hours after the arranged meeting time so the students figured (or hoped) Kakashi would show up any minute now.  
  
Sakura was standing next to Sasuke, desperately trying to strike up a conversation with the anti-social raven-haired boy, acting completely oblivious to the blonde haired boy. Naruto started to mutter, annoyed with the lack of attention and gave the rock a hard kick in Sasuke's direction. Unfortunately his aim was off.  
  
"Naruto! You idiot! Watch what your doing!" Sakura yelled as the rock flew past her head.  
  
He about to say something, most likely something stupid, in response when a familiar grey haired jonin walked up to the three young people, with his nose in a equally familiar bright orange book.  
  
"Hey! Hey! Kakashi-sensei! Your late!" Naruto yelled, pointing an accusing finger at his teacher.  
  
Then they all waited for his stupid excuse of the day, and were utterly shocked when it didn't come.  
  
"I know," Kakashi muttered off handily as he closed his book.  
  
"And?" Naruto asked looking at him blankly.  
  
"And what?" Kakashi inquired.  
  
"And you always have some bad excuse for why you're late," Naruto said in response, "so what is it today?"  
  
Kakashi just stood there for a moment starring at the blonde boy and finally just shrugged.  
  
"Anyways, I have your mission for today," Kakashi muttered.  
  
"What are we doing today Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked politely.  
  
"Yeah Yeah! Are we doing something dangerous? Like an assassination or something like that?" The over exuberant boy asked, his blue eyes shinning with anticipation for the day's mission.  
  
Sasuke rolled his eyes, but chose not to insult Naruto at that moment and stared at Kakashi. He too wanted to hear what they were doing.  
  
"You have to go pick flowers," the grey haired man informed them.  
  
There was dead silence, something unusual on the team that had the village's number one troublemaker as a member. The three students stood, looking at their teacher with blank stares.  
  
"Hey hey, you're joking right?" Naruto said hopefully breaking the silence, "I mean we're past the boring missions aren't we?"  
  
"No I'm not joking. You have to go pick flowers," Kakashi replied, "one hundred and thirty seven to be exact. No less than that."  
  
"This is stupid," Sasuke said, "picking flowers? There is no way I'm doing it."  
  
"Well you have to get these flowers, I don't care how you do it, just have one hundred and thirty seven here by night fall," the jonin said and with out another word from his students he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.  
  
"What a stupid mission," Naruto muttered, looking at the spot where his teacher was standing moments ago.  
  
"Oh shut up Naruto!" Sakura snapped.  
  
"He's right, for once," Sasuke said as he walked away from the other two, "this is stupid and I'm not doing it. I have more important things to do."  
  
"Wait up Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said, darting off after the dark haired boy.  
  
"Hey guys! What about the flowers?" Naruto yelled after his teammates.  
  
"Get them yourself Naruto!" the pink haired girl yelled back at him over her should as she caught up with Sasuke.  
  
"But I don't know anything about flowers!" Naruto muttered, frustrated, kicking another rock.  
  
It flew into the air, and hitting a building that was very close by it bounced back, nearly hitting Naruto in the head.  
  
The blonde boy grumbled after dodging the flying rock and stalked off in search of flowers.  
  
*********  
  
"Why do you insist on following me?" Sasuke said angrily glaring at his pink haired stalker.  
  
"Well I thought, since we don't having anything to do, maybe you and I do something...like get lunch..." Sakura said looking sweetly at her crush.  
  
"No," he replied flatly, tones annoyance rising in his voice, "Like I said, I have more important things to do. They don't involve me spending the day with possibly one of the most annoying people around, when she should be training, so she isn't so weak instead of wasting her time!"  
  
Sasuke quickened his pace and this time his female teammate didn't follow. She stood watching him as he disappeared from sight, tears welling in her eyes.  
  
'Why does he hate me?' she thought as she clenched her fists, ignoring Inner Sakura's shouts to follow him, telling her she couldn't give up that easy. Sakura turned her eyes downward as a few tears fell down her checks.  
  
"SAKURA-CHAN!" an over exuberant shout came. Rock Lee ran towards her as fast as he could with his one crutch, the rest of his team trailing slightly behind him.  
  
"Oh, hello Lee-san," Sakura muttered, whipping her eyes and smiling faintly at the hyper boy.  
  
When the other three members of his team caught up, Neji gave Rock Lee a dark look, annoyed with the momentary delay. Then he looked at Sakura with a darker look and said icily, "Shouldn't you be training?"  
  
Sakura looked at older boy and narrowed her eyes a bit; she wasn't in the mood to deal with his attitude at the moment. "Kakashi-sensei didn't have anything us to do today."  
  
"Hmm... Didn't have anything for you to do... I wonder what my eternal rival could be up to..." Gai said thoughtfully.  
  
"If you're not doing anything you can train with us!" Lee exclaimed jovially, "Can she Gai-sensei? Can she?"  
  
"I don't see why not," Gai said grinning, teeth shinning as he patted his miniature look-a-like on the head and continued to walk to their training spot.  
  
"Yay!" Lee exclaimed as he grabbed the pink haired girl's wrist and pulled her along after his team, "this way Sakura-chan."  
  
All this happened so fast, Sakura barley had time to blink, let alone decline his request to go with them. So she simply sighed and decided to go along with it, she had nothing better to do anyways.  
  
*******  
  
"Stupid flowers," the spiky blonde haired, fox boy muttered as he picked a few more flowers and tossed them on a growing pile beside him.  
  
He was actually happy with the state of the mound of plants that sat beside him. It was growing rapidly. He had found a large patch of yellow flowers and it was taking him no time at all to get the one hundred and thirty seven flowers that he needed.  
  
"123...124...125" He counted out loud, tossing the flowers as he went.  
  
There was a sudden snap of a twig from a small clump of trees from behind Naruto and he instinctively tensed up. He turned his head slowly and looked behind himself. There were only trees.  
  
Naruto sighed, he had hoped it was something like a missing-nin, or anything that would make his day just a little more exciting.  
  
"Alright, where was I... Oh man! I lost count!" He cried loudly looking at the giant pile of flora.  
  
Then suddenly there was another snap and this time it was accompanied by a thump. The blonde boy bolted to his feet and ran to see what had made the sound. Hoping it was something of interest.  
  
He found the source of the noise. On the ground next to a tree just a little ways away from where Naruto was picking flowers, sat a dark haired girl.  
  
"Oh hey Hinata," Naruto said with a large smile.  
  
"H-hello Naruto-kun," Hinata replied timidly, rubbing her ankle, "I'm s- sorry if I bothered you."  
  
"Nah, you didn't bug me," Naruto said as he offered a hand to help her up, "So what are you doing here?"  
  
"W-we haven't been training as much... Kiba-kun is still getting us to being able to walk again. So I th-thought I'd w-w-walk..." Hinata replied quietly as she slowly took his hand and with his help stood up.  
  
"Ya, I saw him the other day... he looked kinda wobbly," Naruto said.  
  
It had been about two months since the five ninjas, four genin and a chunin (as well as a dog) had set out to retrieve their comrade from the sound. All five had ended up in the hospital afterwards.  
  
Thanks to the fox demon, its container was out of the hospital in a week, even though he had almost mortal wounds. The others weren't so fortunate.  
  
Choji had been in a coma for about a month. Neji had been released around the same time as Choji, but even now his wounds had not completely healed. Kiba had both legs and an arm broken in the explosion, his casts had recently come off and as Hinata said, he was getting use to walking again. Shikamaru had been out for about two weeks from blood loss and would have died if not for a last minute blood transfusion. But now they were all doing much better.  
  
All of this had happened because of Sasuke. Those four people had been in critical condition, because they had gone to save Sasuke. And did he thank anyone of them? No, he was bitter towards them, sometimes worst to Naruto then he had been before. He had wanted to go with them... Wanted to go with the bad guys...  
  
Naruto stood, fists clenched, nails digging into his palms. After being such a jerk, Sakura still followed his around. Naruto didn't understand and it made him furious to think about.  
  
"N-naruto-kun?" Hinata said looking at the blonde boy curiously, her soft voice snapping him from his daze.  
  
"Wha? Oh ya," he blinked a couple of times "I'm picking flowers. Kakashi- sensei told us to do it and some how I got stuck doing it by myself."  
  
"Oh... I see," the white-eyed girl said.  
  
"Its weird, but I'm almost done," Naruto said, beaming as he turned back to his pile and walked over to the patch of flowers to finish his job.  
  
Hinata followed him, but rather slowly. She stopped next to the pile and looked closely at them for a moment, then nervously at Naruto.  
  
"Ano...Naruto-kun," she said, in her quiet, little voice, "those aren't flowers."  
  
"Nani?" He said, tilting his head in a confused manner.  
  
"Well... they're weeds," Hinata explained, "not flowers."  
  
Naruto looked as if he was about to cry. "Its not fair," he muttered as he fell backwards into the grass.  
  
~Author's Note~  
  
AJ: Huzzah! And hopefully I'll get Chapter two up soon, I got about over half of it written so should be up soon, but ya please keep reading and thank you in advance to any of you who chose to update ^.^  
  
Kabuto: You're too hyper. . . its annoying  
  
AJ: What? What are you doing here? You're not even in this chapter!  
  
Kabuto: you mean I'm in the story?  
  
AJ *shifty eyes * I didn't say that!  
  
Kabuto: What ever, so when am I gonna be introduced?  
  
AJ: around the end. I mean I didn't say that. . . anyways that's all for now, c ya'll next chapter! 


	2. Flowers and Jerks

AJ: YAY! I'm so glad people like this! Happy, happy, happy!  
  
Kabuto: Need I say you're annoying again?  
  
AJ: Yes  
  
Kabuto: It was rhetorical. . .  
  
AJ: oh well, I don't care and now something else I don't care about. TH DISCLAIMER! I don't any Naruto things! There now that I got that out of the way, to the second chapter!  
  
Japan words in this chap  
  
Temee - Bastard  
  
***  
  
Chapter 2  
  
Sakura giggled slightly as she watched Rock Lee attack a tree with his un- casted arm.  
  
Lee had eventually gone through with the surgery to fix both his arm and his leg and it had been very successful. Yet his arm and leg were still in casts, healing from surgery.  
  
When they had reached the training spot. TenTen had demonstrated and even taught Sakura some of her moves that involved projectiles and other weapons. While Gai had done special training with the two boys. The two need slightly special training, Neji still being wounded and Rock Lee being in casts.  
  
Now Gai was working with TenTen nearby but distant enough so that they could not be seen. Lee was practicing some basic tai-jitsu on a tree, while Neji leaned against a tree a bit of a ways away, eyes closed.  
  
Lee was also trying to entertain Sakura, who was sitting on the ground watching him. He was talking to the trees, speaking as if it was an opponent, egging it on, like he was trying to get it to attack him. Sakura laughed as she watch and Neji occasionally snapped at them.  
  
"So we meet again Mr. Tree," Lee said turning to a new tree and then attacked it, making her laugh again.  
  
Neji opened his eyes a bit and looked at them, "Shut up," he snapped, "That's really annoying..."  
  
"At least he is training, your not doing anything," Sakura said, and for the second time that day, she narrow her eyes looking at the Hyuga boy.  
  
"That's not train, that's acting like an idiot, and if anyone needs training its you," Neji replied coldly, "I wouldn't be surprised if an academy student could beat you."  
  
Sakura glared at him, her eyes alit with spite and hate. She got to her feat slowly and walked, slowly, over towards the "genius". 'I ought to pound the shit out of him!' Inner Sakura said as she stopped next to him.  
  
"Are you calling me weak?" she asked bitterly.  
  
"That would be an understatement," the black haired boy responded.  
  
What happened next happened so fast, no one saw it coming. A loud smacking noise echoed in the area. It took a second for Lee to figure out what had happened, and then who had hit who and it took Neji a few moments to feel the pain in his left cheek.  
  
'Heh, that'll show him,' Inner Sakura laughed.  
  
Neji was stunned for a moment, then grinned slightly, "That was pathetic, you just proved my point... you are weak."  
  
"Jerk," was all Sakura managed to say, her anger making her at a loss for words.  
  
"I thought you liked jerks, after all you are obsessed with Uchiha," he said icily.  
  
'TEMEE! How dare he insult Sasuke-kun!' Inner Sakura exploded. She raised her hand to slap him again and brought it down, however this time it never connected with Neji's face.  
  
He grabbed her wrist just inches away from his head and his grin broadened. "Your slow too," Neji said squeezing her wrist tightly.  
  
She raised her free hand to hit him, but it had barley moved when he had it too in his grasp. Then Gai entered, having heard the first hit, he came to make sure his students were okay, TenTen tailing at his heels.  
  
"Neji! What are you doing?" Gai said as he took in the scene.  
  
Neji tightened his grip on Sakura's wrist causing her to whimper slightly in pain. He then let go and brushed past her, walking away from everyone else.  
  
"I'm going home," he simply said, obviously very annoyed and angry, as he walked from sight.  
  
Lee ran to Sakura, almost frantic, "Sakura-chan! Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine Lee-san," she muttered as she rubbed her wrists, she turn to Gai and then added, "I'm sorry for disrupting your training."  
  
"It's all right," the green beast said, smiling, his teeth shining.  
  
"Well I should go anyways. Thank you very much for letting me train with you Gai-sensei," she bowed slightly to the jounin and then looked at his miniature clone, "Bye Lee-san."  
  
With that she took off at a bit of a jog. Lee yelled a farewell to her and received a wave from the pink haired girl in return.  
  
******  
  
"These are great flowers Hinata," Naruto said cheerfully as he plucked a few more plants from the earth, "are you sure no one is going to mind us taking them?"  
  
"No one in the family c-comes to this part of the grounds except for me," Hinata answered as she too picked a few flowers.  
  
The two where on the grounds of the vast Hyuga estate. Hinata had mentioned a patch of flowers there and told Naruto he could get his flowers there. When they had gotten to the place, Naruto stood awestruck for a few moments, shocked at the sheer size of only the gates to enter the grounds. He had seen Sasuke's place before and it was pretty big, but it was nothing compared to the Hyuga place.  
  
Now, with Hinata's help, he had all but a few needed flowers, for the second time that day.  
  
"Thanks for your help too Hinata," he said.  
  
"You're w-welcome Naruto-kun," the Hyuga girl replied, her cheeks becoming slightly flushed.  
  
A characteristic fox like grin spread across Naruto's face when he noticed this. He had noticed she blushed a lot around, though he was a little too dense to yet figure out why.  
  
She looked up and her white eyes met his, pretty much closed ones. Her face turned an even brighter shade of red and she looked back down at the ground.  
  
Naruto tilted his head curiously, and opened one eye, looking confused, but shook it off and pick up a small white flower and began to fiddle with it.  
  
"Do we have enough yet?" Naruto asked.  
  
"I think so...,"Hinata said timidly as she surveyed the flower pile.  
  
"Finally!" Naruto cried overjoyed.  
  
He crawled about a foot to Hinata and the pile; slightly squishing the flower he had been unconciously playing with. He looked down at the flower and then to Hinata and again a grin spread across his face.  
  
Naruto leaned close to the overly shy girl, "Thanks a lot Hinata."  
  
She let out a little squeak and began to shake slightly. The blonde boy raised his hand slowly and placed the white flower behind her left ear.  
  
"There! It brings out the colour of your eyes," Naruto said brightly then laughed a little, "or lack of colour I guess."  
  
He smiled and pulled away from her. "Now I have to get these to Kakashi- sensei!"  
  
He began to gather the flowers in his arms. Naruto managed to hold about three quarters of the flowers, but it made it hard for him to see anything in front of him.  
  
"I'll help," Hinata said as she carefully picked up the rest of the flowers, still blushing from having Naruto so close.  
  
The two walked to the massive gate of the Hyuga estate, Naruto never once stopped talking. When they got to the gates Neji was just walking in.  
  
"Hello Neji-niisan," Hinata squeaked.  
  
All he did was mutter in response, obviously very agitated.  
  
Naruto shifted slightly so he could actually see Neji and noticed a fading, yet still visible red mark on his left cheek.  
  
"Hey Neji what happened to you?" Naruto said, "looks like someone smacked you really good."  
  
At this Neji grumbled something, ten times angrier, and stalked past them.  
  
"What was that about?" the blonde genin said quizzically, but shrugged it off and the two continued to walk.  
  
On the way Naruto nearly walked into about eleven people and three buildings, but fortunately with Hinata's help he managed to avoid any potential collisions.  
  
He babbled the entire time, about random things. From why he liked ramen to his teacher's infamous books and parts of them he had read over Kakashi's shoulder, even a bit about his birthday the next day.  
  
They got to the spot they were to drop the flowers off at in about fifteen minutes. To Naruto's surprise Kakashi was already there, leaning against the building the fox boy had kicked the rock against earlier, reading Icha Icha Paradise.  
  
"You're not late!" Naruto yelled, shocked, " I thought you wouldn't get here until midnight!"  
  
The grey haired jounin looked over the top of his book, "Oh well... and I thought of an excu... I mean this morning I was attacked by rabid monkeys..."  
  
"LIAR!" Naruto shouted, dropping his flowers to point a finger at his teacher.  
  
"Did you get all the flowers?" Kakashi asked, standing up straight and closing his book.  
  
"Yeah, yeah!" Got em'. Hinata helped too!" Naruto said proudly.  
  
"Well that's good..." Kakashi muttered, "teamwork is always important...Well that's all for today... you can go."  
  
Naruto blinked a couple times. Even though he was very un-perceptive, he could still tell something was wrong with his teacher. But the day's mission was over and he had one thing on his mind... ramen.  
  
"Okay! See you tomorrow Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said.  
  
"No... I'm cancelling training tomorrow," Kakashi said as he pulled a scroll out from his vest.  
  
"Great!" Naruto beamed then turned to Hinata, who had been quiet for some time now, "Come on lets go get some ramen!"  
  
"Ano... okay," she replied and laid down the flowers.  
  
Naruto grinned and grabbed her wrist, dragging her off to Ichiraku's.  
  
***  
  
Author's Note  
  
AJ: another successfully chapter! Yay! Power to me! Any ways I have a slight question it's a bit of a weird one, um to any one who has read the manga after the chuunin exam, um Kakashi mentions a guy named Obito, is he mentioned any where else, ever?  
  
Kabuto: why do you wanna know?  
  
AJ: I just do *shifty eyes *  
  
Kabuto: stop doing that!  
  
AJ: NO! and ya that's all for now, next chapter you get to find out about the flowers ^.^ 


	3. Ramen and Sake

AJ: HI!!! Here is chapter three for all of you who were waiting for it! It's a long chapter, took me forever to type and I did it while I was trying to role-play so meh. Thank you all for answering my question, great, great help ^.^ and thanks very much for the reviews, glad you like!  
  
Kabuto: you're just lazy  
  
AJ: shut up, and your do the disclaimer today  
  
Kabuto: why?  
  
AJ: my birthday present to you! I know it's a little late but oh well (Kabuto's birthday is on February 29)  
  
Kabuto: *sarcastic * why thank you  
  
AJ: you're welcome ^.^  
  
Kabuto: anyways, AJ doesn't own any Naruto things, no matter how much she wishes she does, she doesn't.  
  
AJ: I fixed some errors I found in chapter 1 and I know there is one here but I could find it... so ya sorry bout that!  
  
******  
  
Naruto slept most of the morning, taking full advantage of his day off. Around noon his doorbell rang, waking him from his slumber.  
  
He bolted up straight and clumsily ran to the door, tripping over his closes and eventually colliding with the door when he reached it. He fumbled with the doorknob and flung it open.  
  
"Oh hey Iruka-sensei," Naruto muttered sleepily, looking blankly at his former teacher.  
  
"Hello Naruto," Iruka said brightly, "Happy Birthday."  
  
"Uh... Thanks," Naruto said, rubbing one eye with his hand.  
  
"I was wondering if you wanted to go get some ramen for lunch, as part of your present," Iruka asked, although he already knew the answer.  
  
"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto cheered loudly, all tiredness forgotten, "just a second I have to get dressed!"  
  
He darted back to his room while Iruka waited and laughed when he heard random shouted and bangs from the boy's bedroom. Naruto emerged from his room a few minutes later, wearing his bright orange jacket and pants.  
  
"Okay Iruka-sensei! I'm ready!" the genin said running to the door and closed it behind him. Then he grabbed chuunin's wrist and dragged him to Ichiraku's.  
  
*******  
  
Sakura and Sasuke sat waiting at their usual meeting spot, anticipating the arrival of their teacher. He was five hours late, which was late even for him. They also thought it was odd that their blonde comrade had yet to show up.  
  
But they just sat there and waited, having no idea the people they were waiting for weren't coming and training was cancelled.  
  
******  
  
" Can I have another bowl? PLEEEEASE Iruka-sensei!"  
  
"You're going to get sick if you eat much more... but if you insist," Iruka sighed and laughed.  
  
"Yay!" Naruto waved his arms frantically and flagged down some one who worked there and ordered a new bowl.  
  
Once the ramen was placed in front of the fox like boy it was only a matter of minutes before the bowl was empty.  
  
"Can I have another bowl?" he asked hopefully.  
  
"You've had ten bowls already, are you sure you still want more?" Iruka chuckled.  
  
"Of course! I'm still hungry," the blonde boy replied.  
  
His former teacher laughed again, "Well maybe we can get some more food later, there is something I want to show you."  
  
"Oh... okay," Naruto replied.  
  
Iruka got the bill and paid for the eleven bowls of ramen the two of them had eaten. Then the two left the restaurant.  
  
"So how has training been lately?" Iruka asked as they walked.  
  
"Good, I think I'm getting stronger than Sasuke," Naruto responded happily.  
  
Iruka grinned. They talked and walked, quite a bit, through some trees until they came to a clearing. In the clearing there was a stone memorial, raised slightly. Naruto knew he had seen it before, but now it was covered with flowers.  
  
"There it is," Iruka said as they approached the stone slab, "a memorial for the heroes of the village."  
  
"Yeah, yeah! Kakashi-sensei showed us this on our first day of training, with the bells," Naruto said, squatting to read the names, "but why are there flowers?"  
  
"Well you know what today is don't you?" the dolphin said sitting on the ground, also looking at the names.  
  
"Kyubi, he attacked the village the day I was born, so... today thirteen years ago right?" the blonde boy said.  
  
"Yes... people bring flowers for their loved ones... I brought these two this morning," Iruka said, pointing to two white flowers that sat on top of the memorial.  
  
Naruto suddenly felt a little sick. "Iruka-sensei... how many people did Kyubi kill?"  
  
"Over one hundred, I think about a hundred and forty. The names go from here to here," Iruka said, pointing to one name, and then another, between the two was a great number of names.  
  
That made the fox demon's container feel worse. He starred blankly at the flowers, an uncharacteristic frown spreading across his face.  
  
"You shouldn't feel guilty Naruto... You didn't do anything... and I didn't bring you here to make you feel bad, I just wanted to see this..."  
  
"I know Iruka-sensei, you're the last person who would want me to feel bad," Naruto said.  
  
His eyes didn't look away from the flowers, in particular a bunch of them that were piled up against the one side of the memorial and a few of them that were on the top.  
  
"Those are my flowers!" He shouted with out warning, causing Iruka to jump.  
  
"What?" Iruka asked after getting over his momentary shock.  
  
"Those flowers! The big group of them! Hinata and me picked them yesterday for Kakashi-sensei," the genin replied.  
  
"Those ones?" Iruka said, looking at the specific flowers, "Those ones were here early this morning, first ones here actually... there is always a lot of flowers here early in the morning, every year."  
  
"You think Kakashi-sensei brings flowers every year? Does he have family on this thing? He said something about his friends names were on this thing," Naruto said his eyes running over the names.  
  
"Ano... he might, I don't really know. I know he was a student of the forth... that might have something to do with it..." Iruka replied.  
  
"Student of the forth? Cool!" Naruto said smiling.  
  
After a minute or so, during which Naruto read the majority of the over a hundred names out loud, Iruka stood up.  
  
"Are you ready to go?" the dolphin asked.  
  
"Yeah, yeah! Can we get some more ramen? The walk made me hungry!" Naruto said as he jumped to his feet.  
  
"You have a bottomless," Iruka laughed, "It's amazing you stay so thin... Come on, I guess I'll buy you some more."  
  
"Yay!" Naruto yelled in celebration as the two, for the second time that day, headed to the ramen restaurant.  
  
How ever they never actually got there.  
  
A block or so from Ichiraku's the two stopped, after hearing someone call Naruto's name.  
  
Kakashi stood leaning against a building, a box under his arm, his only visible eye was arched up in happiness. "S'its Naruto!" he shouted and waved with his free hand, something seemed a little off with the way he was talking, "I been lookin fur you."  
  
"Hey Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said waving to his teacher. Iruka's greeting was a nod and a smile.  
  
Kakashi, stilling with a happy expression, pushed himself off the wall. Unfortunately he did so a little to hard and nearly fell forward. Once he got balanced again, he walk foreword, except it was more of a stagger than a walk.  
  
"I have somefink for you fur you," he said, he speech slurred. He held out the box he had been holding, "Happy Birfday!"  
  
Naruto reached out for the gift, now completely aware of the jounin's odd behaviour, and when the smell of sake filled his nose when approach Kakashi, he knew why.  
  
Naruto smirked, looking at Kakashi, who was now swayed slightly on the spot.  
  
The grey haired man raised his hand to his temple and blinked a few times, and then his expression went from happy to confused. "You know... I may have, mighten ta had too much sake," he said, swaying for another moment and then promptly collapsed.  
  
Naruto squatted down next to him and prodded him lightly in the shoulder, "Kakashi-sensei?... he's out... can we go get ramen now?"  
  
Iruka stood with a blank look, "Ano... we can't leave him here Naruto. We should take him home... but I don't know where he live... Do you?"  
  
Naruto shook his head no, then the two tried to brainstorm people whom they could leave Kakashi with and the only person either of them could think of was Gai.  
  
Naruto laughed at this and then explained to Iruka that a week ago, they had been walking with Kakashi and had seen Gai coming in their direction. Kakashi quickly told his student that he had to go and if Gai asked where he was, they were to tell him that they were suppose to tell the other teacher that he was sick with the first illness they could think of. Then Kakashi disappeared. They ended up telling Gai that Kakashi had the Ebola virus, which Naruto had no really idea what it was.  
  
"Well... I guess if we have nowhere else to take him... he can stay at my place until he sobers up," Iruka sighed, not overly excited about having the drunken man in his apartment.  
  
The two pick Kakashi up, one of his arms around each of their shoulders, causing the grey haired man to be rather lopsided, seeing as Iruka was quite a bit taller than Naruto.  
  
Kakashi's head lolled from side to side. He occasionally yelled random things in his state of unconsciousness; they most often seemed to be about muffins. Every now and then he would slip too and fall to the ground, if neither of the other two could catch him in time. In the second time falling, his fingers had latched on to Iruka's shirt and as he fell, the shirt's seems at the shoulder had ripped.  
  
It took them almost a half an hour to get to a place that really wasn't that far, all the way getting mean and funny looks. The mean ones directed to Naruto and the funny ones towards Kakashi.  
  
When they did reach Iruka's apartment building, they were faced with a new challenge, getting Kakashi up to the second floor where Iruka's apartment was.  
  
They walked side ways up the stairs, stumbling on at least every other stair and it was a miracle that the scarecrow or Naruto's present was dropped.  
  
At the top of the stairs Naruto, stopped and stretched, raising his arms in the arm. He blinked a few times, arms up in the air, and then looked behind himself just in time to see his teacher slide from his and Iruka's shoulders.  
  
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto cried.  
  
Iruka too looked behind him, and it was a very good thing that the two were ninjas; otherwise they would have had to walk up the stairs again. Naruto and Iruka each grabbed one of Kakashi's wrists and dragged him a safe distance from the stairs.  
  
They took him down the hall to Iruka's door. "Well I guess I should get him inside, thank you for the help carrying him. You can go if you want to," the chuunin said to the blonde boy.  
  
"You mean we're not getting any more ramen?" Naruto said with a pleading look in his blue eyes.  
  
"Sorry, but its probably not a good idea to leave him alone... here," Iruka said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out some money and pressed it into Naruto's hand, "there, you can get more ramen and buy something else for your birthday... or spend it all on ramen like I know you will."  
  
"Alright, Thanks Iruka-sensei," Naruto said smiling brightly and then waved and ran down the hall to the stairs, still holding the present from Kakashi under his arm.  
  
Iruka sighed again and looked at the jounin he was holding on to. He unlocked his apartment and slowly dragged Kakashi inside.  
  
******  
  
Two o'clock in the morning, the alarm clock went off. Iruka grunted and reached out his hand and hit the snooze button.  
  
He lifted his head and looked slowly around his living room. He was courteous enough to let Kakashi staying his room, so now the dolphin was lay on his couch.  
  
He got and walked across his living room, sleepily dragging his feet, his hair, out of its usual high ponytail, fell in his face. He went into his room to check on the sleeping scarecrow, to make she he was doing all right and not suffering any side effects of drinking to much alcohol, like dieing for example.  
  
When he got into his room, he noticed the jounin now sprawled on the floor instead of in the bed. Iruka would have picked him up, but in his tired state he could hardly stand up him self.  
  
Iruka yawned and shifted uncomfortably in his vest that he was too tired to take off earlier, he was were all the cloths he had been earlier that day, including his ripped shirt.  
  
The dolphin yawned again and walked over to his bed and fell onto it. "Just a minute," he muttered just before he fell into a deep sleep.  
  
******  
  
While the two, and almost everyone else in the village slept peacefully, something sinister was under way.  
  
At the Hokage's home, where the Hokage herself lived and some of the most powerful artefacts of the village were kept.  
  
At that moment Tsunade lay sleeping, while ANBU guards were stationed around the home.  
  
On the top floor were the artefacts were kept, two guards sat, wearily playing cards. They were so tired that they didn't notice the feathers falling around them until it was too late.  
  
The ANBU fell the ground, asleep and a person stepped out of the shadows and laughed quietly to itself. The person grinned wildly at how easily this plan was working.  
  
*********  
  
AJ: Yay! Hope ya like, the last little part is the first really relevant thing to the plot! And congrats to all who figured out what the flowers were for ^.^  
  
Kabuto: well its not like it was hard  
  
AJ: shut up you! Anyways, not sure how long it'll take for next chapter but I'll have it up A.S.A.P.!! Byez! 


	4. Hangovers and Influences

AJ: YAY Chapter 4! Gomen, didn't mean to take so long with this... its even shorter than I meant it to be but at least I'm getting it up ^^ *pats self on head* Short chapter I know, but the next one is to be long, maybe really long!  
  
Kabuto: what's the difference between long and really long?  
  
AJ: one is long and the other is really long  
  
Kabuto:... o_O  
  
AJ: Anyways, Disclaimer! I don't own Naruto, sliced bread, alarm clocks or muffin pie!  
  
Kabuto: Muffin Pie? Alarm cloaks? Sliced Bread? Why did you need to say those?  
  
AJ: well I don't own them now do I?  
  
Kabuto: Ya but-  
  
AJ: but nothing... to the story!!  
  
*******  
  
Chapter 4  
  
The first thing Kakashi did when he woke up the next morning was let out a loud groan. He sat up slowly, putting his hand on his head and opening his eyes to take in the surroundings, it took him a moment to realize something was off.  
  
He was in a room he had never seen before, not just ay kind of room, a bedroom. Though slightly intrigued he let out another groan and tried hard to remember what exactly had happened, but knew it was futile.  
  
He stood up shakily, looking around trying to figure out who lived in this place. The first thing he noticed was the person lying on the bed. Brown hair hung in the person's face, and Kakashi bent down to get a good look at the face. Since he was hung over it took him a moment or so to figure out who it was, even after seeing the scare across the person's nose.  
  
He straightened himself up and frowned, he would very much like to remember why he was in Iruka's room. He noted Iruka's ripped shirt, which intrigued him even more.  
  
He rubbed his temple and flopped back down on the ground with a thump. Iruka stirred and let out his own groan. He wearily lifted his head and look at Kakashi.  
  
"Ohayou," he said while shifting slightly and propping himself up on his elbows.  
  
"Ohayou... what am I doing here?" Kakashi said quizzically.  
  
"Oh... well, Naruto and I saw you yesterday when you were very.... intoxicated. You passed out and we couldn't leave you there, so we brought you back here," Iruka explained.  
  
"Oh," Kakashi said, a tone of disappointment in his voice, "I thought something more interesting happened."  
  
It took Iruka a few seconds to understand what Kakashi meant by that. When it did hit him, he promptly turned bright red and looked rather stunned.  
  
"It was a joke," Kakashi said, reassuring the dolphin but laughing rather hard.  
  
Iruka's blush faded a few shades after that and sat up on his bed, "Ano... would you like some breakfast?" he asked.  
  
Kakashi checked the clock sitting the nightstand beside the bed. "Sure I have two hours until I have to go to training," Kakashi said happily.  
  
"You don't start training until nine?" Iruka asked, glancing at the clock and getting of his bed.  
  
"No, training started an hour ago, but they won't expect me until nine," the jounin replied.  
  
"You make them wait for three hours?" the chuunin said with a disbelieving tone.  
  
"Patience is a virtue," Kakashi responded.  
  
Iruka nodded, agreeing slightly, then left the room and headed to the kitchen. Kakashi trailed behind him, taking in the rest of the apartment when. Once in the kitchen Iruka busied himself getting the food prepared and Kakashi took a seat at the small kitchen table, pulled out Icha Icha Paradise and began to read.  
  
The book went unnoticed by the dolphin for the first little while, but with the scarecrow's giggles, drew his attention. Iruka's expression changed the moment he say the bright orange cover of the book, it had been relaxed and sleepy, now it was flashing between shock and distaste.  
  
"It's a good book," Kakashi said with out looking up, let out another little giggle and added, "some good ideas too."  
  
Iruka's face became the colour of a tomato and he made a very odd noise, which had Kakashi laugh.  
  
"It's really easy to make you blush... and freak you out," Kakashi said cheerfully.  
  
Iruka tried with all his might to say something in reply, opening and closing his mouth, giving him a fish like look. He stopped after a flustered minute, calmed down, and returned to the food. Him finished within the next few minutes and placed a plate in front of Kakashi and took his plate and sat across from the copy ninja and began to eat.  
  
Kakashi closed the book, and laid it down on the table and proceed to eat too. Again the chuunin's eyes fell to the book and narrowed slightly.  
  
Kakashi sighed and looked up at Iruka and asked, "You think I'm a bad influence on my students don't you? With my, ah, interesting choice of literature, being late and getting extremely drunk yesterday."  
  
Iruka was a little shocked with the question. The scarecrow didn't come off as someone to care about other people's opinions, so why would he ask? Then again, he did seem like the person to do things for the hell of it and that could be the reasoning behind it.  
  
He thought for a minute, trying to figure out exactly what he thought of the copy ninja. I was a conflicting opinion. He had the punctuality of a snail and read those dirty books in front of impressionable young ninjas. On the other hand he could take care of his team if they got in trouble, he was an amazing ninja, one of the best with the most gorgeous blue eye ever-  
  
Iruka stopped and mentally slapped himself for the thought he hadn't meant to think. He turned red and looked away from Kakashi.  
  
"Well... its just Naruto... he's very influential..." the jounin said, still sort of flustered and trying to word things right.  
  
"I don't think he is really that influential. He does what ever he wants to do, not what some one else is doing. He's more of an influence on other people, like Konohamaru and his group for example," Kakashi responded, "and if anyone has, or is going to corrupt Naruto, it's Jiraiya-sama."  
  
Iruka had to admit, Jiraiya-sama was worst then Kakashi was and looking at it, Naruto was more the type to leave an impression. They finished eating in silence, except for Kakashi's random bouts of humming.  
  
"That was great," Kakashi said, once his plate was cleared, "But I should be going now. Big training session today, so I really shouldn't be too late. Thank you very much for the food and not leaving me on the street."  
  
"It was nothing," Iruka said, getting up and walking Kakashi to the door, "Sayonara."  
  
~*~ Author's Note ~*~  
  
AJ: do you know how many relevant things there are here! Zero!! Muwahahaha! Well it's not completely irrelevant, but meh, close to none. I'm getting closer to relevance, and some more Naruto and Hinata moments ^^ so ya, I'll get next chapter up soon as I can ^^ 


	5. People and Games

AJ: Hello, hello, I know I said it would be a long chapter, but I figured people would like the update sooner, I also said there would be Naruto Hinata stuff, but that is for sure happening next chapter, so ya, this chapter isn't the most exciting thing but it'll do... *pats chapter * That'll do pig, that'll do... anyways... DISCLAIMER! Did I scare you? Huh? Huh? Huh? Anyways... I don't own Naruto  
  
Comments to Reviewers  
  
This is my first time doing this hehe...  
  
Any one who reviewed before Chapter 4: Such positive reviews! Thank you all very much ^^  
  
Karu-san: I dunno, I can see Kakashi as the type to drink a lot, but then again I can see Kakashi doing a lot of things, like dressing up like a girl and doing the can-can, soooo... ya... and second I'm keeping the KakaIru pairing, it's my favourite so it stays. Thank you a bunch for the review ^^  
  
Shadow Eclipse: You DO have to love him and his bad influences now don't ya ^^ Thanks to you too  
  
B.U.G.I.M.S.: The package will be relieved at a later date, hehe^^ In a few chapters, about two or three I believe. Also, Kakashi is on the floor, he fell off the bed ^^ Thanks  
  
Gopu: Okay, why thank you  
  
Wormkaizer: Hehe, lots of cheering, I feel special ^^ and sorry bout not putting the Naruto and Hinata stuff here, but there will be lots to come I promise  
  
Drekko: I'm glad ya like it ^^, and I love the NaruHina pairing too (second fav next to KakaIru)  
  
Man... I said thanks a lot there and used "^^" a bunch too... meh...  
  
Japanese stuff-  
  
Moshi wake arimasen- It's a formal way of saying sorry, it means "I have no excuse for myself" I saw it fitting for the situation I use it in, so I used it... heh I learned it from Shounen Jump... good o'l manga, except they're homophobic, they changed Naruto saying "He Loved you" to "He cared about you" referring to Haku)  
  
Anyways, rambling...  
  
******  
  
"Where is Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto wail from his spot on the ground where he had fallen a half an hour ago when Sakura hit him.  
  
He got the usual response from his teammates, shut up and an added dobe from Sasuke. Then they heard voices from down the road and the three perked up in hope that their teacher had finally arrived. They were fairly disappointed.  
  
"I'm Hungry!"  
  
"I'll get you some food after training."  
  
"Why do we have to train with out people today? Training was troublesome enough before."  
  
"Everything is troublesome to you, so shut up about it. Focus on other things, your hair for example is a mess!"  
  
"Messing with hair is too tr-"  
  
"You say it and I'll smack you! Here I'll fix it for you."  
  
"What? NO! Get away from me Ino!"  
  
Shikamaru came running forward, covering his head protectively. Ino chased after him hairbrush in hand, Choji jogging along behind them, huffing slightly and Asuma strolled leisurely along behind them.  
  
Ino was about to continue her attack on Shikamaru's hair when she saw Sakura. "Sakura-chan!" she shouted and ran to her pink haired friend, causing Shikamaru to let out a loud sigh of relief.  
  
"Ohayou Ino-chan," Sakura replied smiling, "What are you guys doing here?"  
  
"We're training with you guys today," Asuma said and proceeded to lean against a building and continued to smoke, "Once Kakashi gets here."  
  
Shikamaru sat on the ground next to Naruto, sighed and turned his eyes to the clouds. "Hey Shikamaru, how's it going?" Naruto asked stretched out on the ground.  
  
"Horrible, Ino won't leave me alone, it's so troublesome," Shikamaru replied.  
  
Naruto started laughed. Since Shikamaru and Choji had been released from the hospital, Ino had abandoned her chase of Sasuke and taken it upon herself to take care of her teammates. The only problem was she was really bad at it. She yelled at them, telling them not to do things and when they didn't listen, she resorted to violence and fussed over everything. The one good thing that had come out of it was, since she had given up Sasuke, she and Sakura were once again best friends.  
  
Because of the talking now, they didn't hear the other people approaching until-  
  
"Kiba look out!"  
  
Then there was a very loud bang, an "Ow" and some barking from a near by alley. Naruto, a somewhat curious person by nature scrambled to his feet and ran to the alley to see what was going on.  
  
A garbage can lay fallen on the ground while Kiba was, himself, half on the ground, Shino and Hinata holding an arm each. Kurenai stood behind them, shaking her head and beside her the purple haired ninja Anko stood trying to suppress a laugh.  
  
Hinata's white eyes darted to the openning of the alley where Naruto stood, trying not the laugh himself. "Naruto-kun" she squeaked, letting her grip on Kiba slip.  
  
Kiba fell again and dragged Shino down with him. Akamaru barked loudly again and Anko broke out in full-fledged laughter.  
  
"Gomen, gomen Kiba-kun, Shino-kun," Hinata said as she tried to help the others up again.  
  
Shino pushed him self up and Kurenai help Hinata get Kiba to his feet. Naruto grinned his fox like grin as they walked past and for that Kiba punched him in the arm.  
  
"Kakashi isn't here yet?" Kurenai asked Asuma once she, her team and her purple haired friend were out of the alley. Asuma only nodded in reply.  
  
"We really need to get that man a watch," Anko said.  
  
"They're training with us too?" Ino asked her always-smoking sensei.  
  
"Ya, and so are they," he replied, pointing down the road to four more approaching people.  
  
Everyone turned their head to see Gai, Rock Lee, TenTen and Neji walk over and join the group.  
  
"Hello Sakura-chan" Lee said and waved happily.  
  
"Hello Lee-san," Sakura said waving back.  
  
"So everyone is here except Kakashi right?" Anko asked.  
  
"Yes, where is my eternal rival?" Gai inquired.  
  
"He's probably still at Iruka-sensei's place," Naruto said and almost instantly all the jounin were looking at him.  
  
"At Iruka's? Why would he be there?" Kurenai asked.  
  
Naruto smiled, happy to be getting attention and replied quickly, "He was really, really drunk yesterday, so we took him to Iruka-sensei's place so he didn't have to stay on the street, cause neither of us knew where he lived."  
  
"Well, he might not get here for a while yet, so we might as well explain," Asuma said, indifferent about what Naruto said.  
  
"Hai! I wanna do it!" Anko said jumping up and down on the balls of her feet a few times, "We're going to play-"  
  
"Manhunt" a voice said from a little ways away from the group of genin and jounin (and one chuunin).  
  
Sakura and Naruto's head snapped in the direction of the voice and simultaneously yelled, "You're late Kakashi-sensei!"  
  
"Well there was this big stampede of cows and there was this little old lady right in their path and I had to save her," Kakashi said happily.  
  
"Liar!" they shouted accompanied by an accusing point.  
  
"Well I'm here now, so let's get started with the game," Kakashi said.  
  
Kurenai nodded and started to explain, "We'll be in the forest on the east side of the village. The nine of you-" she pointed to team 7, team 10 and Gai's team, "- will be trying to find a marked tree somewhere in the forest. My team will be hunting you down."  
  
"If one of team's eight's members touches you, you're caught and that pretty much the end of the game for you," Kakashi said aiding in the explanation, "Once caught, you have to stay with your captor."  
  
"When everyone is caught and at the tree, the game is over and the winner or winners will be awarded a prize," Kurenai finished.  
  
It was quiet for a moment, the jounin waiting for questions, if there was any, but none of the student's asked anything.  
  
After the silence last for a while Asuma spoke up, "Lets go then."  
  
*********  
  
"What do you mean stolen?" Tsunade yelled furiously and loud enough for the entire building to hear.  
  
"Moshi wake arimasen, Hokage-sama," one of the ANBU kneeling in front of her.  
  
"Do you know how dangerous that scroll is? We had ANBU guarding it for a reason!" she shouted and then fell into the chair behind her desk.  
  
"Moshi wake arimasen, Hokage-sama," both ANBU said.  
  
Tsunade looked over to Shizune who had been standing in the corner, watching quietly, "Go round up all the chuunin and jounin, tell them I'm holding a very important meeting," she said then looked at the ANBU," and you two, tell me everything that happened last night."  
  
*********  
  
AJ: Yay! Another great chapter! For those who don't know, Shizune is Tsunade's assistant/ bodyguard person, she carries around the pig a lot and his these cool dart things on her arms-  
  
Kabuto: you're rambling again  
  
AJ: AHH! Where the hell did you come from!  
  
Kabuto *shrugs*  
  
AJ: riiiight, anyways, the next chapter is going to be the majority of the game and I hope to have it up soon ^^ 


	6. Birds and Ankels

AJ: Chapter numero 6! Woot woot! Anyways, again not as long as I wanted it to be, but hey at least I'm getting it up, and not as much Naruto Hinata stuff, but its there so I kept my promise  
  
Kabuto: its not longer because you're lazy...  
  
AJ: no because I... um... ya...  
  
Kabuto: riiiight  
  
AJ: anyways, time for the disclaimer of DooM! MUWAHAHAHAHAHA cough ,  
  
Kabuto:...crazy  
  
AJ: I don't own Naruto!  
  
Now Commenty thingys to the reviews  
  
Xero- Thanks a lot I didn't think I was making them act all that natural. You know this is the first review I've ever had to use the dictionary to read...  
  
Shadow Eclipse- I hope this update is satisfactory thanks for the review.  
  
Wormkaizer- Yay! More cheering! And Tada! Naruto Hinata stuff  
  
AMI MIZUNO1- I'm glad you do like it, and thanks a lot  
  
Steph, Gemini and Beholder- I know you don't review, but Hey I know your reading so HI!  
  
Now Hi ho Chapter away!  
  
  
  
Sasuke, Sakura, TenTen, Ino, Neji, Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji stood in a line, waiting patiently for the signal to start. Hinata and Shino stood behind them; they were to start a few minutes later, giving the huntiees a head start. Kiba and Rock Lee were some where in the forest; they were getting a bit of a head start thanks to their disadvantages.  
  
Naruto shifted impatiently from foot to foot, talking a little to Neji, Shikamaru and Choji.  
  
Kakashi, Asuma and Gai stood behind all the students; Kurenai and Anko had taken the two handicapped boys into the forest. All three pairs of eyes scanned the treetops.  
  
Out of nowhere, something bright shot up from the trees. It shone white light and hung in the air for a moment then disappeared. The jounin smiled.  
  
"Go," Kakashi said, signalling the start of the game and causing the genin (and one chuunin) to scatter.  
  
  
  
Naruto jumped from tree branch to tree branch, taking a small pause between each jump to listen for anything.  
  
He had been running for a while, about a half an hour. The only sign of another person he had, was a flash of Ino's hair ten minutes into the game.  
  
There was a rustle of leaves behind him and he stiffened slightly, then a branch snapped and another groaned under weight. He turned his head to just catch a blur of blue and beige dart behind a tree.  
  
'Hinata' Naruto thought and jumped to the next branch and continued his run, this time, being perused.  
  
Sakura walked quickly to tired at the moment to run. Her pink hair lay plastered to her sweating forehead.  
  
She eventually came to a clearing, small and serene. Though it was open she figured it would be a good place for her to rest, until she saw something on the far side of the clearing and she hide quickly.  
  
"You ARE slow... and loud. I knew you were there well before you saw me," Neji's voice rang in the clearing as he raised his head and looked over his shoulder at the tree Sakura was hiding behind.  
  
'HELL NO! Of all the people, why him?' Inner Sakura yelled then something crossed her mind. "If you knew I was coming why didn't you hide?" she asked stepping out from behind the tree and saw him squatting on the ground more clearly than she had at first.  
  
"First its pointless to hide from the team that is after us, with the nose, the bugs and the Byakugan, even if Hinata-sama can't use it well, it would still be hard to hide. Secondly, I have my own Byakugan and I knew it was you," Neji replied.  
  
"You're so mean to Hinata," Sakura said taking a few steps foreword.  
  
"I was stating fact, not being mean," Neji snapped and looked back at the ground in front of him.  
  
"What are you doing?" she asked, taking another few steps closer.  
  
"None of your Business," Neji retorted.  
  
The pink haired ninja raised an eyebrow curiously. She sprinted over to him and he looked over his shoulder again and glared at her as she did so, but made no attempt to move. Sakura looked down over his shoulder and at the ground but saw nothing. Then her eyes jumped to his arms where he cradled a small ball of grey fluff and feathers.  
  
"What's that?" she asked.  
  
Neji stayed quiet for a moment before he replied, "A baby bird."  
  
"Why do you have a baby bird?" she questioned.  
  
"... It broke its wing..." he answered hesitantly, "... I couldn't let it die."  
  
Sakura looked at him blankly for a while, "Alright, one last question. Who are you and what have you done with Neji?"  
  
"Oh that was funny," Neji said sarcastically, "now shut up and go away."  
  
"Well sorry," Sakura snapped back, just as sarcastically.  
  
Neji gave a loud aggravated sigh and went back to looking for something on the ground, carefully balancing the bird in one arm. Sakura stayed still, looking down at him and the fluffy-feather ball.  
  
"Why are you still here?" the Hyuga boy asked bitterly.  
  
She ignored his question and asked her own, "What are you doing?"  
  
"Just go away," Neji replied.  
  
"Just tell me!" the pink haired ninja snapped.  
  
"I'm... trying to make a shift for it... but I don't have anything like rope," Neji answered slowly.  
  
Sakura smiled, "Why didn't you say so." She pushed her hand into her pocket, fished around for a second and then pulled out a red ribbon, "here, I keep it just in case, but you can use it."  
  
He looked at the ribbon in her hand, than at her face, with an almost confused look on his own. "Why are you helping me?" he inquired.  
  
"Just because and you welcome. now hurry up we have to get going," she answered.  
  
"We?"  
  
"Not together, but if we stay here any longer, we'll get caught."  
  
Neji nodded and took the ribbon from her and picked up two sticks that rested beside him on the ground. He struggled trying to place the sticks on either side of the broken wing and to keep the bird secure at the same time.  
  
Sakura rolled her eyes her eyes and knelt down beside him. He jerked away from her at first and she couldn't believe his stubbornness. She reached over for the bird and carefully took it from him. She held it on her lap while Neji tied the sticks to its wing with the ribbon.  
  
When he finished he muttered and almost inaudible thanks and gently took the bird back.  
  
"Okay, one last question. How are you going to get away from Kiba, Shino and Hinata with out hurting the bird any more?" Sakura asked.  
  
"I'll use my Byakugan, I'll see them before they know I'm there," Neji replied simply.  
  
"But you'll still have to run or hide, and you said it yourself you can't hide," the pink haired genin said.  
  
"Do you have a better plan?" Neji asked.  
  
Sakura thought for a moment, "I think I do,"  
  
  
  
He jumped from the tree and landed with a thump on the ground, a momentary pain shot through his legs from the shock of landing, but he took off running again. How long had this chase lasted? Naruto didn't know and there was now way he could find the tree if he was focused on not being caught.  
  
He weaved between the trees, check over his shoulder to see a flash of blue and tan among the green and brown of the trees. She was still up there, leaping from branch to branch and gaining on him.  
  
He was trying hard to think of a way to get away from her, but he couldn't. He looked back again then made a sharp turn, narrowly missing a collision with a tree. He kept running, that was until he heard Hinata yell, a loud crack of a Brach, lots of rustling in the leaves, a loud thump on the ground and a yelp of pain.  
  
Naruto skidded to a halt and looked around, and saw nothing but trees. A million things ran through his mind, from how it could be a trap to how Hinata could be hurt. Eventually concern for his fellow ninja won the mental battle and he spirited back to see what had happened.  
  
The Hyuga girl sat on the ground clutching her ankle and wincing. A broken and splintered branch lay on the ground not far away.  
  
"Hinata, are you okay?" he asked, stopping next to her.  
  
"Naruto-kun?" she said looking up, "y-you should keep going..."  
  
"I'm not leaving you all alone and hurt," Naruto replied and squatted down next to her, "now, are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine Naruto-kun," Hinata replied. She shakily pushed herself up off the ground, but the moment she put weight on her foot she let out a cry of pain and would have fallen again, had Naruto not caught her.  
  
"I think you hurt yourself when you fell," he said, stating the obvious. He let her down gently and sat beside her. "Hey hey, your good with medicine, do you have anything for your ankle?"  
  
"No... I d-did, but I gave it to Kiba-kun," she replied, blushing slightly.  
  
"And you can't walk... so what do we do?" the blonde boy asked.  
  
"You can leave... if you want," the white-eyed girl said.  
  
"I told you I'm not going to leave, plus you pretty much caught me," Naruto said.  
  
Hinata shook her head, "I d-didn't..."  
  
Naruto frowned slightly, looked at her for a moment and then grinned his fox like grin. He quickly reacted out and grabbed her hand. "Now you did, and the rules are I have to stay with you till the end of the game."  
  
Hinata was speechless and very, very red. Naruto held onto her hand for another second or so before he let it go and sprawled out on the ground.  
  
"Now, do we stay here or try and find the tree?" he inquired.  
  
"I... I know where the tree is," Hinata answered.  
  
"So we should go right? I mean that's where everyone is going to be right?" Naruto said.  
  
"But I can't..." Hinata said timidly.  
  
"Don't worry," Naruto grinned again, "I know a way to get there!"  
  
  
  
AJ: so ya like? Anyways, more Naruto Hinata stuff next chapter! Anyways see ya then! Bah! It didn't put the stars in before Ghaa! So this is the third time I post this chapter! 


	7. Meetings, Fire and Piggyback Rides

AJ: well here we are again, at this little ficcy of mine... and look! I UPDATED!  
  
Kabuto: bout time  
  
AJ: shut up you... anyways, I have kinda an excuse, see I'm not done school yet, one exam left, but still not done, so I've been studying and working on summative in my spare time, since its summer now, I hope to make updates more frequent!  
  
Kabuto: ya, like you'll do that...  
  
AJ: I can't believe you don't shut up!... anywho, the DISCLAIMER is as follows, I don't own Naruto!  
  
Commenties to my Revieweries!  
  
Shadow Eclipse- thank you, heh, your one of the Narutoy Sasukey liking people... I can't stand it, but that's most likely because I hate Sasuke with a fiery passion more than anything else...  
  
Aerisu17- reply eh? Your wrong it's a review!!! Haha, in your face :P and down disagree cause I know where you live... and I can guess which window!  
  
Wormkaizer- here is your Naruto and Hinata stuff, again its only a little, but again more later in the fic... But I hope ya like   
  
Gopu- Thanks  
  
AMI MIZUNO1- sorry it was short, I hope this is more to your length liking and I'm glad you love it   
  
  
  
The five jounin sat against a large tree, orange banners hanging from the branchs. Anko and Gai were having a compition, Kakashi was happy at first, glad that Gai was doing one of his competitions with someone else, that was until he realized they were trying to see who could talk louder than the other, and he still had a hangover.  
  
"Anko... why are you here?" he said, sounding very irritated.  
  
"BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE A MISSION AND I HAD NOTHING ELSE TO DO SO I THOUGHT I'D HELP KURENAI!" She shouted at the top of his lungs, not wanting to lose the yelling contest.  
  
"DON'T YELL!" Kakashi snapped, " I have a very, very bad headache."  
  
"Hanvgover you mean," Anko said, in a normal voice again (Gai cheered loudly for winning the contest), "... so you spent the night at Iruka's?"  
  
"Anko, the man blushes if you look at him in a funny way, nothing happened," Kakashi replied.  
  
"Damn, I mean you and Iruka, that's something I'd pay to see," Anko replied. All the jounin went quiet and their eyes were on the purple haired one. "What? I would!"  
  
"Do you always say what ever pops into your head?" Asuma asked after another drag on his cigeret.  
  
Anko paused for a moment of thought before she answered, "Most of the time, yes."  
  
Kurenai shook her head and muttered something under her breath about her friend.  
  
A new voice entered the area. "Finally found you guys," said one of the two young ninjas who walked over to the tree.  
  
"Izumo! Kotetsu! How are the cutest lower level ninja's I've ever seen?" Anko asked happily.  
  
The two had a very blank look. They stared at her then looked at each other and shrugged and back at the group.  
  
"There is a meeting backing in the village," Izumo said.  
  
"For all jounin and chuunin," Kotetsu added.  
  
"We were told to get you."  
  
"What's the meeting about?" Kureni asked.  
  
"I don't know, but Hokage-sama is in a frenzy," Kotetsu replied.  
  
"Sounds important... we should waste as much time as possible," Kakashi said.  
  
Asuma suddenly gave a lazy sigh, "I have to go get Shikamaru."  
  
"We should leave a note for the other kids, so that they know where we've gone," Kurenai said.  
  
"I have a solution for both," Kakashi said, withdrawing a kunai, "Some of my dogs can find Shikamaru and one can stay here to tell the others."  
  
"Alright, summon your poochies and lets go see what all this hulabaloo is about!" Anko shouted louding, dramatically pointing in the direction of the village.  
  
  
  
"See, I told you I had an idea!"  
  
"It's a stupid idea."  
  
"You're just mad I thought of something so good," Sakura snapped at the Hyuga.  
  
She was hunched over a small fire, feeding it twigs. Her master plan was to build a fire and put dry leaves upon it creating an exceptional amount of smoke and smoke their cloths. Kiba and Akamaru would smell it, but hopefully not come near thinging it was smoke, and bugs don't like smoke. In her mind she new it wasn't good at all, but she was never going to admit that to Neji.  
  
"There, all ready," she said adding some more leaves, a large cloud of smoke billowing from the little fire and then she stepped back, "you can go first."  
  
"Take the bird then," Neji muttered and walked over to Sakura, handing over the wounded bird.  
  
She took it and he stepped closer to the fire. He unzipped his jacket and slid it off. Bandages ran around the lower part of his torso and up around his left shoulder, his back was also marked with a few scars in the middle of his back. Sakura's eyes swept over them a few times and felt rather sad.  
  
"Stop staring," Neji snapped.  
  
"Sorry... those are from when you-" she started, but her finished.  
  
"From fighting the sound when we went to get your boyfriend back."  
  
"He isn't my boyfriend!"  
  
"But you wish he was, just like every other damn girl in this village! Is there even a reason why? Other than the obession they have with his looks?" Neji said rather bitterly, he didn't like Sasuke, and it showed.  
  
Sakura went quiet and looked at the ground, though Inner Sakura swore at the Hyuga repeatedly. She thought about what he said, she knew there was another reason she like the Uchiha, she just couldn't think of it at the moment.  
  
Neji waved his jacket over the fire, letting the smoke catch it, making it smell. When he finished he slid his coat back on and retrived the bird from Sakura, so that she could smoke her cloths.  
  
She comtemplated what she was going to do, its not like she was going to take off her shirt and wave it over the fire. She stood looking at the fire, the wind tossing her hair gentally and then she smiled, coming up with a new idea. She put some brush on the fire and then moved a bit to stand in the smoke. She coughed a few times, smoke streaming into her face and stinging his eyes.  
  
"What are you doing?" Neji asked.  
  
"I didn't want..." she said while coughing, "... my shirt..."  
  
"Its not like I would look!" Neji snapped.  
  
"You're... mad... I... another good idea," she struggled to say.  
  
"No, its a bad idea. That's how you-" Sakura didn't hear the rest of Neji's reply because she passed out before he finished.  
  
  
  
"Tell me if you're slipping, I don't want to drop you."  
  
"Hai, Naruto-kun," Hinata replied, tightening her grip around his neck, but making not to choke the blonde boy.  
  
Naruto was carrying her, piggy back style. They had been walking for a while now according to Hinata's direction.  
  
"Naruto-kun... if you're tired... I can walk," she said timidly.  
  
"I'm okay and you're hurt, I wouldn't make you walk. Plus this is making good endurance training," Naruto said happily.  
  
It was quiet for a while between the two. Naruto, uncomfortable with the silence, tired to think of something to talk about, but he was at a lack of ideas.  
  
"So... what kinds of things do you do in your spare time?" Naruto asked, figuring now might be a good time to get to know her a little better.  
  
"Train..." she replied quietly.  
  
"Train? All the time?" he asked.  
  
"I'm... weak... I need to train..." Hinata said, hanging her head.  
  
"You're not weak, you made it to the preliminaries of the exam," Naruto said.  
  
"Because I was with Kiba-kun and Shino-kun... they were carrying me..." she said, letting her chin touch her chest, her head lowered to its full extent.  
  
"But when you fought Neji you did really good!"  
  
"But... I lost..."  
  
"There isn't a problem losing to someone who is really strong. You did better against him then some of the others would have. You are strong Hinata," Naruto said full of sincerity.  
  
She was silent and looked. Naruto glanced back over his shoulder, noticing the more sad than usual look on her face.  
  
"You are strong," he repeated, "You could probably beat a lot of people." She didn't say anything in response so the blonde genin went on. "You're a different kind of strong too, during your fight with Neji, even after he hurt you really bad, you still kept going, standing up for yourself and what you believe in. It was really brave of you."  
  
"Thank you, Naruto-kun," she said in almost a whisper.  
  
There was another long pause between them before the fox demon's container spoke again.  
  
"Someone once told me that when a person has something precious to protect, that's when they become truly strong. So, if you think you need to be stronger, think about someone or something important to you."  
  
A faint smile formed on the shy Hyuga's lips, tighting her grip on him just a little more and as she thought of a person precious to her.  
  
  
  
AJ: NEJI WITH NO SHIRT! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I got nice mental images when I wrote that part  
  
Kabuto: you sicken me  
  
AJ: oh come on, I'm a fan girl I'm aloud to picture bishies tops less... ya... and I gave the chapters names now if nobody noticed and I went back and tried to put little breaks in the last chapter to make it easier to read, but not sure if it'll work... the next chapter is probably gonna be short, but up sooner so ya... see ya then 


End file.
